Swedish ABB to buy US green power firm

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The engineering giant ABB announced it would purchase US green energy company Power One for the staggering sum of $1 billion in a bid to make the Swiss-Swedish company "a global player" in solar inverters.

The transaction, which has been approved by the Californian's company's board, should wrap up during the second quarter of 2013, ABB said in a statement. The engineering giant said it would pay $6.35 per share in cash, or a total of $1.028 billion, but stressed that the deal would also allow it to absorb Power One's $266 million cash holdings.

Based in Camarillo, north of Los Angeles, Power One is a leading maker of solar photovoltaic inverters, used to transform the energy captured by solar panels into electrical power.

"Solar PV is becoming a major force reshaping the future energy mix," ABB chief executive Joe Hogan said in the statement, maintaining that with its acquisition of Power One his company would become "a global player" in the field.

Power One, which last year raked in sales of around $1 billion, employs some 3,300 people, including in China, the United States, Italy and Slovakia.

The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 145,000 people. In the United States, ABB had revenues of $6.7 billion and its workforce grew to nearly 20,000 employees in 2012.

"The combination of these two successful companies will create significant value-driven growth based on innovation,” said Ulrich Spiesshofer, head of ABB's Discrete Automation and Motion division, in the statement.

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